When Bart Peterson took the podium at the Ball State University Alumni Center on Tuesday night he came with a message of hope not only for Muncie, but for many other struggling cities in America.
The former mayor of Indianapolis titled his speech "Redeveloping America's Core Cities for Long-Term Prosperity: The Case for Mixed Income Housing." Peterson began with a explanation of the history of urban disintegration, which is the decrease in the quality of life of urban residents.
"During the post-war era many people left the cities to go to newly developing suburban housing complexes," Peterson said.
The "White Flight" was caused by the demolition of apartments to clear room for interstates, more affordable housing in the suburbs because of FHA loans, more low-income families moving to housing projects because of urban renewal, higher taxes and more white people wanting to separate themselves from the multicultural atmosphere of the cities, Peterson said.
The middle classes' migration to the suburbs caused the concentration of the poor to move into enclaves and high-rise public housing. Once the poor became concentrated, many areas of the city became "tender boxes," which led to high crime rates, poor education systems and rampant drug usage.
These problems persisted and intensified until about the mid-90s when implementations such as Hope 6 led to the reconfiguration of public housing. This, in addition to the rise of community development, corporations and the return of retailers in the cities, led to the first growth in America's cities since the 1950s.
Although cities have been recovering since the 1990s, Peterson said, there is much work to be done. With mixed-income housing, Peterson and others hope this will lead to some of the middle class to return.
In Muncie a discussion about healing economic woes has begun.
Virginia Nilles, director of the Muncie Public Library and one of the organizers of Peterson's speech, said the former mayor's speech and others like his about mixed-income housing have incited talks between city civic leaders.
"There was a dialogue that needed to be initiated," Nilles said. "To solve our problems we need to start working together and to keep talking."
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